James Comey, Barbara Bush, Coachella: Your Monday Briefing

The move follows American-led attacks against the government of President Bashar al-Assad of Syria over the weekend. Here are seven takeaways from the strikes, which were conducted with Britain and France.

• The airstrikes, which hit three targets, were intended to keep the West from being dragged further into Syria’s seven-year war. But they didn’t alter the overall dynamics of the conflict.

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One of the targets of American-led airstrikes in Syria on Saturday was a research center near Damascus.Credit
Hassan Ammar/Associated Press

A new legal threat with long arms

• President Trump has more than Robert Mueller to worry about.

We look at the U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York, known for its impartiality, and the threat it poses to Mr. Trump.

• Today, a federal judge is to consider a request by Michael Cohen, Mr. Trump’s personal lawyer, that investigators be blocked from reviewing materials they gathered when searching his office and hotel room.

Pensions leave states in a pinch

• An eye surgeon who served as president of a public university in Oregon receives the state’s largest government pension: $76,111. Per month.

Many states and cities are still hurting from the 2008 financial crisis, which hammered pension funds and tax revenues. But it didn’t reduce the amounts they owe retirees.

• As a result, local residents are paying more taxes but getting scantier services.

Corruption in South Africa: “They eat money”

• Since apartheid ended in 1994, tens of billions of dollars in public funds — intended to develop the economy and improve the lives of black South Africans — have been siphoned off by the African National Congress, the very organization that had promised an equal and just nation.

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Our correspondents write about a fraudulent dairy project that is emblematic of South Africa’s corruption and entrenched inequalities.

• “We managed to bring democracy, which is not working for us now. It’s working for individuals,” one South African said, laughing. “I cannot cry. When I’m crying, it’s just the same. It’s better I must laugh.”

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Workers building a house in Thembalihle, a township in the South African province of Free State. In many townships, the level of local corruption can be quickly gauged by the quality of government housing for the poor. Credit
Joao Silva/The New York Times

The Daily

Listen to ‘The Daily’: California vs. the E.P.A.

An auto emissions battle is brewing between the Environmental Protection Agency and the state of California. Separately, James Comey tore into the president on national TV.

Audio

Business

• With Dropbox and Spotify successfully going public, tech investors are confident that a bonanza of initial public offerings lies ahead.

• More than 200 million eggs were recalled in the U.S. after an outbreak of salmonella.

• AT&T and Time Warner executives will testify in the Justice Department’s suit to block the companies’ merger. It’s one of the headlines to watch this week.

• U.S. stocks were down on Friday. Here’s a snapshot of global markets today.

Smarter Living

Tips, both new and old, for a more fulfilling life.

• Tips to travel light while still dressing well.

• Here’s what to expect from a quality home inspection.

• Recipe of the day: Start the week with pasta with mint, basil and fresh mozzarella.

Over the Weekend

• Barbara Bush, the seriously ill wife and mother of presidents, has decided to stop seeking medical treatment to prolong her life, a spokesman said. She is 92.

• A prominent civil rights lawyer, David Buckel, died after setting himself on fire in a park in Brooklyn. In a letter, he said he wanted to make a statement about protecting the environment.

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• Thousands of Hungarians took to the streets, calling for Prime Minister Viktor Orban to step down just a week after he was elected to a third consecutive term.

• The chief executive of Starbucks apologized after a video of two black men being arrested in a Philadelphia branch on suspicion of trespassing quickly drew outrage.

• The N.B.A. and N.H.L. playoffs are underway. Here are the latest scores from the court and the ice.

• Beyoncé set a new standard with her performance at the Coachella festival in California, according to our pop music critic. Read his review.

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“It was rich with history, potently political and visually grand.” Our music critic has good things to say about Beyoncé’s performance at Coachella.Credit
Kyle Grillot/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

• “Rampage,” an adventure film based on a video game and starring Dwayne Johnson, earned $34.5 million and the top spot at the North American box office.

Noteworthy

• How profiteers coax women into surgery

A growing alliance of law firms, marketers, finance companies and doctors makes money by encouraging women to have their vaginal mesh implants removed, sometimes unnecessarily.

The procedure makes the women more lucrative plaintiffs in lawsuits against medical device manufacturers.

• America’s threadbare schools

As teacher protests spread in recent months, we invited educators to show us the conditions that a decade of budget cuts wrought in their schools.

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We heard from 4,200 teachers. Here’s a selection of what they said.

• In memoriam

Milos Forman challenged Hollywood with a subversive touch, directing the Oscar-winning “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” and “Amadeus.” He was 86.

Jean Marzollo sent millions of children searching through elaborate photo collages in her “I Spy” rhyming picture books. She was 75.

• What we’re reading

Recommended by Prashant Rao, our deputy Europe business editor: “Sports Illustrated had a strong hold on me when I was a young basketball fan. Its fall from relevance has been startling, and sad. This article in The Ringer takes us through the magazine’s difficult, and worrying, future.”

• Quotation of the day

“It used to be legs, limbs and hair coming at you, but now it’s legs and limbs.”

— Travis d’Arnaud, the New York Mets catcher, on his teammate Jacob deGrom, the gangly, 190-pound flame-throwing pitcher who lopped off his trademark long locks over the winter.

• The Times, in other words

Here’s an image of today’s front page, and links to our Opinion content and crossword puzzles.

Back Story

Hollywood has the Oscars, journalism has the Pulitzers.

There will be no red carpet or ball gowns, but newsrooms around the U.S. will gather this afternoon for the announcement of the Pulitzer Prizes, which honor the best journalism and arts of the previous year.

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Joseph Pulitzer, in an undated photograph. His name will be on many journalists’ minds today.Credit
Associated Press

Established in 1917, the prizes are given in 21 categories, which include breaking news photography, fiction and editorial writing. (Here’s a look at how The Times selects the work it puts forward for consideration.)

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The top prize, which wins a gold medal, is the public service award. Previous winners include The Arkansas Gazette’s coverage of school integration, The Boston Globe’s exposé of sexual abuse by priests and The Times’s reporting of the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

The awards were created by Joseph Pulitzer, publisher of The St. Louis Post-Dispatch and The New York World, at the turn of the 20th century as an “incentive to excellence.” Hawkish, with an eye for rooting out public abuses, Pulitzer is widely regarded as one of the founders of modern American journalism.

“It’s my duty to see that they get the truth,” he once said, “so that they may be wisely guided by its light.”